Re: Is there a MIDI player for Apple 2 GS ?

[spec@vax2.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector)]

In article CUTjefbla@bconnex.net (Jeff Blakeney) writes...

>There can also be some "artificial" limits to the playback depending
>on the sound hardware you are using in your Windows machine.  Have you
>ever compared the output from a MIDI file played through an Adlib card
>to the output from the same MIDI file played through a SoundBlaster
>AWE 64?  If there were no conversion of the MIDI data into something
>usable by the hardware they should sound close to the same, excluding
>any differences in the quality of the audio amps and such.  However,
>you will find that the AWE 64 sounds vastly better.  How could this be
>happenning if there wasn't some kind of fiddling with the MIDI file
>data?

    That isn't really a question of conversion, it is a matter of
what each hardware synthesizer is capable of. The AdLib uses FM
synthesis to recreate musical instruments while the AWE64 uses
wavetable synthesis to do the same (in fact it comes with 1 MB
or more of ROM based patches on the card to start you off with).

>Although, I will agree that MIDI files played through MIDISynth don't
>always sound the greatest and I'd like to see someone produce
>something better.  There isn't much stopping someone from using the
>Sound Tools instead of the MIDISynth Tools to create a 15 voice,
>unlimited sample size, MIDI Player for the IIgs.

    Yep, that has been my point all along. MIDIsynth is too limited,
the Apple IIgs needs something that supports more voices and can
swap instrument patches in and out as needed. Someone also needs
to convert at least 300+ instruments patches that a player could
dip into. It still wouldn't compare with PC MIDI synthesizer cards
available today, but at least it would bring the GS up from being
poor to _respectable_ for MIDI playback.

    The biggest limitation right now that needs to be addressed is
a lack of voices. Unfortunately I'm not aware of anyone working on
a way to update or replace MIDIsynth, so this is all mostly
theoretical. Quite frankly I care little about the arguement of
whether the IIgs has MIDI convertors or MIDI players, I care about
the end result--how it *SOUNDS*. :)

Mitchell Spector
spec@vax2.concordia.ca